Friday 5 December 2008

Gears of War



I got a little package through the post the other day. My gears are here:

On-one Stainless steel Chanring 32t

On-one Groove Armada Sprockets: 1 x18 t, 2 x 20t and 1 x 22t.


They are all very nicely finished. I’m especially impressed with the chainring. I suspect I'll get some more of these in the future. On the Pug I’m intending to run a 18 and 20 on one wheel and a 20 and 22 on the other. I'll space them outboard as far as I can, but space them a bit further apart from normal.


Is it still a single speed when I have 3 different gears? Does any one care? I suspect “no” for both.


Spoke and nipples also turned up, so, hopefully, I'll get the rims drilled, and the wheels built up this weekend. I’d better check I've got a suitable long bolt and enough spacers to dish the hub in the jig.


As an aside Brant from On-one completed Iditabike a couple of times and wrote some great articles about it in, now defunct, UK mag Mountain Bike Pro. He’s been a great source of information about how I “might not die”. Cheers Brant.


Currently I'm trying to sort out a big pile of old parts and clothing for tomorrows bike jumble at Mud Dock. Hopefully it will add a bit to my flights fund!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How are you running three gears? A flip-flop 1+2? Interesting...

Shaggy said...

The front and rear wheels on the Pugsley are interchangable- they both use rear hubs. I've opted for Hope single speed hubs which have a short cassette body. One hub will have a 18 and a 20 the other will have a 20 and a 22. Flip-flops wont work on the pug because the rims are really off-set. Does that make sense?

Gabor Kulcsar said...

Maybe I'm not the most authentic source of information, but I did some snow (and ice) riding and 32/18-20-22 seem to be HUGE gears for this task. They MIGHT suffice on the plains, but any uphill and you are dead. Typical snow gear IMHO is in the granny range (22 front, ~20 back). Well yes, a SS is not very much suited to this task...
Perhaps it doesn't matter that much since you are going to push the bike a lot anyway ;-)

Anonymous said...

dont forget that bike is gonna weigh minimum 60 pounds loaded.
Might be worth considering a 23 if you are giving yourself 3 options.
Whoever Radirpok is then he does himself an injustice.He knows what hes talking about.My own experience is sending alot of time in 29x26/28 riding a loaded snowbike.

Shaggy said...

Cheers guys!

I know Pat Irwin raced on a 32:20 and Eric from Epic on something similar. Brant is trying to get me a 24t, (or I could use another crankset and a 30t ring)... I must say I'm not sure, but I guess I'd rather be under gunned than walking the whole time. Gonna do some rides loaded in the sand to get a feel of the ratio. I'll report back!

Eric said...

Pat was on a 26" bike with snowcats
and in 05' on a 29er I used a 30-23 and it was ok with a packed trail but allot of work after 3 days and no rest.

With a pug ss go with a granny gear up front for sure. 24-20 or something like that.

Singlespeed really is not as much fun or as practical snowbiking as it might seem.. I've given up on it and love my gears now.